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Synopsis

Ikeuchi Aya is a fifteen years old girl, passing the high school exams. But little by little she starts to notice strange things appearing; she can't walk properly, things slip off her hands and her handwriting becomes messy. All of this, sadly, is caused by a brain disease which can't be cured.

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Reviews

After watching ‘The Queen’s Classroom’ in my starting days of dramas, I thought there isn’t and there won’t be any drama that can beat The Queen’s Classroom but I was wrong. After going through almost 40 dramas finally, this is the drama that can match The Queen’s Classroom. After TQC and some movies this is the drama that created huge impact in my mind. It’s really thought-provoking, No exaggeration but after watching this drama my views on many things are changed.

A MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO DROPPED OR HESITATING TO START THIS DRAMA BECAUSE OF ITS SAD STORY:

If you’ve dropped this drama or hesitating in starting because of sad story then I consider this as the biggest mistake in drama world. You’re missing a truly amazing show. You can’t expect happy ending every time. Sometimes happy endings can’t satisfy you but bittersweet or sad endings can satisfy. This is the one that satisfies everything, it’s sad but really beautiful glance at life. After all death is the reality of everyone’s life. SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE THOUGHT THAT THIS DRAMA IS DEPRESSING BECAUSE OF SAD BACKGROUND BUT THIS DRAMA ISN’T DEPRESSING AT ALL.

The story is original and it contains both happiness and sadness. Because this story is mainly focused on Aya Kito’s life there isn’t much romance but it’s balanced. The story is based on the real life story of Aya Kito (Ikeuchi in this drama) from her diary, a 15 year old girl with Spinocerebellar Ataxia. Spinocerebellar Ataxia causes to lose control over body. Aya wrote diary when she was fighting against this illness. She kept writing this diary till she was able to write. Most lovely thing about Aya is that she managed to face her cruel fate with very lively positive attitude.

Another great thing about this drama is it’s ending of each episode with photos of Aya Kito and quotes from her diary….that added extra touch in this drama.

After watching this show you’ll realize how precious and beautiful life is…This show will teach you different aspects of life, motivates you, makes you to rethink about your life and makes you to live every moment of your life.

Erika Sawajiri wonderfully performs as Aya in this show. She was brilliant, pure, genuine and graceful. Not only Erika but everyone was great Mother, Father, and little girl, her friends, Asou and her sister Ako. One thing I want to mention is that Asou is the totally fictional character. He was added because Aya’s mother wanted him in this series because Aya couldn’t have romance when she was alive.

The theme song, Kona-Yuki, by the Japanese band Remioromen and Only Human by K fits well with the drama and the emotions that the characters go through. Other soundtracks are as great as Kona-Yuki and Only Human.

I won’t say to have a box of tissues while watching this drama. Just feel the depths of emotions, let the tears shed-don’t wipe them and feel the great feeling of tears…. But I recommend having an entire litre jug of water by your side if possible; you’re going to be that dehydrated from crying.

And remember how great your life is….family….friends….love….hope….”Just being alive is such a lovely and wonderful thing.”

Recommendations

Though different media, both are heartwarming series revolving around friendship, love, and discovering oneself. However, without inducing any spoilers, both series are also quite uncanny in how the story progresses through each episode.

In both stories, the main character has an incurable disease that will gradually take away their ability to move their bodies. Both dramas describe how they find out about their disease, how they deal with it, and how the disease progresses.

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Comments

I can't bring myself to watch this, is this any get better? I've only seen five eps few years ago and put it "on hold" list and it's still there since then. Coz it was too boring, i like melodrama but actors seem to be lifeless on screen and couldn't express their emotions well. Not to mention about very poor cinematography.

Still can't understand the hype around this show. Is there something magical that i can't see, i wonder? XD

yeah I agree maybe it's like that too but when I watched the movies before this one her character wasn't like that, sooo I thought maybe they changed her character a little bit in this drama so it would be more touching that why she was always crying.

yeah, does everyone cry for the same thing everyday? but I still know that everyone is different how they handle the things. sooo ~
well you have to accept that everyone is different when they're okay with something or not, annoyed with it or not, it's easy right?

I mean you don't write a comment and add a little rude things just because you have a different opinion and then you don't except a reply in return ? especially in the first place you the one who still don't get what I am saying and talk like you the one who is always right and the other one is subnormal or something , sorry but this is the internet so I will reply whenever I want, it's not something for you to decide.
Girl I I thought you the one who need to chill? I don't know how you read my comment but I was just replying you.

@nightrainboww

Yeah I agree with you, I guess I was annoyed that time that why my comment sounds like that and I also forget to add a lot of things there so it would be no misunderstanding ,and why I thought that they changed her character because when I read and watch the movies too it was different when the drama came and I didn't judge only by the pics ,plus I wasn't that good in English when I write that comment, anyway sorry about that XD

@reonsoru no, I didn't mean it like that and no need to be sorry! :D Mine isn't as bad as in the drama (it's a different illness after all :P), and will not shorten my life or affect my brains or anything like that, though I do have to deal with chronic pain, dislocating joints, muscle weakness etc and it can vary a lot even during one day.
What I wanted to say is that I agree with you, that you can't know if someone is struggling or not, just based on how they smile in the photos or because they seem to be all positive about it :P I'm sure there is 0 crying photos of me! XD It's also about the families - most likely they would want to take photos of the nice moments, not the saddest ones.
Even if there were people who were perfectly fine with their condition, and never worried about their illness (the ones that cannot be cured but will get worse by time), that would be a really small minority. Maybe she was like that, part of the minority? We can't know. :D But in terms of how majority of such people would deal with it, I think the drama showed it well.

@nightrainboww first of all, i am sorry to hear about your case. I dont really know what would be an appropiate way to address this, especially since everyone affected is coping differently with these kind of things - as you pointed out yourself already.

this being said, i am on your page and i guess the aya in the book (with her diaries) had a similiar mindset to the character in the drama -thus the popularity of the book.

Of course, this is just once way of many ways to deal with this, and i wasnt trying to diminish anyone affected who isnt as positive about their disease and how to live with it as aya in the drama.

@yurisama you said the real aya "was like a girl who smile when she's sad and never give up until the end as you can see in the pics at the end of the episode!" .... how do you know she was sad in these photos? Just as aya in the drama has happy moments, the real aya would be happy too and maybe thats were the photos are from, not from her unhappy moments when she was crying.

So you didnt like ayas character because she was crying all the time. Well, if she was crying over heartbreak i might agree with you but she was crying because she struggled with her incurable disease....

Anyways, no need to get so angry, I was just pointing out a common practice in drama (scripwriters and directors decide the character mostly) so no need to get to aggitated. And i read your comment carefully, it seems like the other way around since you didnt understand anything i said. Anyways, i wish you dont write me again because your comment was kinda hostile.

yeah you're right here, maybe it's the scriptwriter / director's fault.
but I haven't said that the real aya doesn't cry or struggle? like what are you even talking about???, what I have said before that I am not saying that she shouldn't cry but at least she didn't have to cry all the time in every minute (okay, I don't actually remember the drama clearly to remember how much she cried) to tell us that she is Sad unless the real one was like that then I don't have a problem, that the only thing that annoyed me in her character in my opinion, Also,
"You can't really say she never cried from a few photos at the end of the episode"
really??? I totally think that you read my comment in the wrong way......but whatever..

@yurisama @reonsoru as a person who has an incurable illness, which in some years will force me to rely on wheelchair at times, I think this drama portrayed the feelings well. Usually the books (etc.) about such people focus on showing the positivity of the person - they try to form an image of someone who keeps going nevertheless, to support others in the same situation or to help similar people to retain their hope for the future. From my own experience, as well as the experiences I've heard in support groups, this phase doesn't (usually) come before the feelings of disbelief, the denial phase, possibly fear and the thoughts of ''why me?'', maybe even shame. That's an important part of accepting it all, and surely there will be tears. If someone goes straight from getting the diagnose to "whatever, I will keep going anyway", they are likely to break down at some later point. Especially with illnesses that progress, after new symptoms appear, the person often goes through all those emotions and thoughts again. People with such an illness will be able to adjust to their ''new life'' and see the bright sides of it, but it doesn't mean there will be no more tears or no thoughts of wanting to do the same things as their able-bodied peers, even if to others it looks like that the person is always smiling. Just my two cents. ^_^